SPORT PSYCHOLOGY

Get to know your instructor, the plan, and what’s coming your way. This session sets the tone — who you’ll learn from, how the course flows, and what’s expected to make the most of it.

• Instructor intro 
• Course structure 
• Assignments & expectations

Get inside the athlete’s mind and see how performance, wellbeing, and environment all play off each other. Explore what sport psychologists do, how they work with teams and individuals, and why the right mental setup can change the game.

• The role and importance of the sport psychologist
• Performance & wellbeing
• Individual, role & environment triangle
• Working with teams vs. individual athletes
• Case Study: ATP tennis player, Premier League football team, NFL takeover

Learn how to spot when athletes and teams are truly ready to perform and when they’re not. You’ll break down real cases, apply practical frameworks, and start asking the kind of sharp performance questions that move results.

• Why assessment & formulation matter
• Identifying performance questions 
• The 5 P’s framework
• Applying the triangle to assessment
• Workshop: Readiness assessment practice

Assignment #1: Write a readiness assessment of your chosen athlete/team, rating their readiness out of 100 and highlighting task, individual, and environmental factors that influenced your score.

Understand what really fuels elite performance. Dig into what drives athletes to push harder: from motivation theories and goal types to finding a personal “why” that keeps the fire burning long-term.

• Considering what underpins drive in elite athletes 
• The need to succeed
• Performance, mastery & outcome goals
• Motivation theories: Intrinsic/extrinsic, self-determination
• Strategies: SMART goals, personal “why”
• Demo: Setting clear, achievable SMART goals for an athlete or a team

Learn how to keep emotions in check when the stakes are high. Explore tools for focus, flexibility, and calm under pressure, and see how breathing and mindset techniques can help athletes stay in control when it counts.

• Emotional awareness & control
• Cognitive processing
• Cognitive flexibility & adaptability 
• Co-regulation & role modelling
• Strategies for emotional regulation in elite athletes
• Demo: Practice guided breathing & relaxation exercises 

Learn to give and receive feedback, build stronger team relationships, and develop leadership skills that boost performance. Through self-awareness, role-play, and practical strategies, you’ll discover how openness can level up both the game and the teamwork.

• The role of relationships in learning
• Self awareness
• Support seeking
• Leadership & followership
• Strategies to enhance openness within individuals
• Workshop: Role-play giving constructive feedback 

Assignment #2: Describe your athlete/team’s individual traits and outline one or two interventions you would use to improve their drive, regulation, or openness.

Get clear on what makes athletes perform at their best. Learn to assess roles, check alignment, and spot gaps in development, then apply it directly to your case study athlete or team to propose actionable improvements.

• Role clarity 
• Role consistency & alignment
• Considering history & development
• Workshop: Evaluating role clarity & alignment and proposing adjustments 

Design training that works. Learn to replicate target performance, guide growth without over-correcting, and build sessions that develop both the mind and body, all while keeping your team or athlete performing at their best.

• Replicating target performance in training
• Allowance for failure
• Appropriate guidance & reflection
• Sufficient team member performance
• Workshop: Designing a practical training session tailored to your athlete or team

Keep athletes cool when it counts. Explore mental toughness techniques, design pressure-based training, and adapt elite strategies to boost resilience in athletes, while sharpening your own coping and delivery skills.

• Mental toughness & performing under pressure
• Reward & punishment sensitivity
• Designing pressure training & exposure to punishment
• Transformational delivery & coping skills
• Case Study: Mental toughness programme in elite cricket

Assignment #3: Analyse your athlete/team’s role & opportunities and suggest interventions to improve training quality.

Learn how to build environments where athletes feel safe, supported, and ready to perform. Explore psychological needs, developmental history, and safety strategies, then put it into practice by adapting Premier League examples to your own team or athletes.

• Psychologically informed environment overview
• Responding to psychological needs
• Considering developmental history
• Building psychological safety
• Workshop: Developing psychologically informed environments in elite football

Lead in ways that inspire your team. Explore motivational strategies, foster collaboration, and connect inclusively, using real-world sports examples to bring leadership lessons to life.

• Purposeful & inspirational leadership: VMOST
• Encouraging collaboration
• Incentivising behaviour
• Inclusivity & connection
• Case Study: Leadership behaviours in an NFL team going through a takeover

Bring sports psychology into your coaching without crossing the line. Apply mental performance strategies ethically, create supportive environments for athletes, and tackle real-world scenarios where coaching meets mental health.

• Psychological principles & daily coaching practices
• Creating a psychologically supportive environment 
• The ethical boundaries: Coaching & psychological practice 
• Workshop: Establishing the boundaries between a coach & a psychologist

Wrap up what you’ve learned and turn it into action. Explore the latest in sport psychology, reflect on your key takeaways, and build a clear plan to apply your skills moving forward.

• Future directions & innovations in sport psychology
• Discussion: Share your key takeaways 
• Final Q&A session & next steps

Assignment #5: Submit a set of recommendations to improve the readiness and performance of your chosen athlete or team. 

Final Project: Athlete/Team Mental Performance Improvement Strategy
Compile your five assignments into a single case study that assesses your chosen athlete or team’s readiness, individual traits, role and opportunities, and performance environment, culminating in an integrated plan with actionable recommendations to enhance psychological readiness and performance.